Downtowners surface for first Zocolocos

I’ve lived downtown for about a year and I’ve met but a handful of fellow downtowners. Will and Jaime, what up?

So when I dropped by Zocolocos — a Downtown Residents Association meet and greet — I felt like how Rudolph, Hermey and Yukon Cornelius must have felt when they finally made it to the Island of Misfit Toys. I was among my people.

I was surprised by the turnout, as was the Zocolocos crew. I walked into a packed Luca restaurant at The Fairmont around 6:30 and immediately met Irma Alcala. And if I can take a moment — Irma, I think what y’all are doing with Zocolocos is awesome. And I do think you live downtown.

The timing of this couldn’t be better. There’s so much downtown activity going on, both officially and unofficially. The city is making moves, and will soon open its downtown development office, which will be charged with improving the downtown life. Then you have people like Ed Cross and the construction of The Vistana, yet another downtown living option. There’s the Rivercenter Mall facelift around the Commerce Street bridge. The revamping of the Joske’s building. And, of course, the San Antonio River Improvement Project.

The point is, there’s a bunch of stuff going on. For the people to gather, to make downtown their own, now. . . it’s something kind of special. Hanging out at Luca Monday night felt like we were taking downtown back. Back from the tourists.

Usually, signs of construction are a good thing. It means progress is being made, and that money is being invested. But I get an uneasy feeling when I see all of these hotels going up. Do we really need more hotels? Maybe we do. But what we really need is more residents. Luckily, the city knows this and is acting on it. More on that this week.